The military is to require volunteer service members to pledge that they hold no other citizenship, after reports that the mother of a navy sailor made him a Chinese national without his knowledge.
The Ministry of National Defense is to issue a document pledging that volunteers do not possess citizenship of another nation before allowing them to join the military, top officers told a routine news conference in Taipei yesterday.
A sailor surnamed Yang (楊) who serves in the 168th Fleet had obtained a Chinese identification card, the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) reported on Monday, citing sources connected to an ongoing probe by the Investigation Bureau.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
The sailor’s mother — a Chinese national who gained residency via marriage — had apparently acted without informing Yang, Navy Chief of Staff Vice Admiral Chiu Chun-jung (邱俊榮) said.
Military brass and ministry officials are working on the pledge and making improvements to the vetting system to ensure Taiwan remains the only nationality of volunteers, he said.
Yang joined the navy in April 2020 and formerly served on a Chi Yang-class frigate, but has since been transferred to “a posting that involves fewer sensitive missions,” Chiu said.
The military is working with the National Immigration Agency (NIA) to determine Yang’s next steps, as the man has expressed a wish to renounce his Chinese citizenship, he added.
Legal residents of China are not allowed to serve in the Taiwanese government or military, said army Major General Cheng Chia-chi (成家麒), who heads the human resources division at the ministry’s Department of Resource and Planning.
The rule is stipulated in the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Nationality Act (國籍法) and regulations governing the employment of government personnel, he said.
These laws exist for a good reason, as volunteer military personnel are duty-bound to serve the nation, Cheng said.
People with dual citizenship or legal status in China are disqualified from joining the armed forces under existing regulations, said army Colonel Huang Ming-chun (黃銘君), who serves in the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Personnel.
Separately on Tuesday, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) reiterated that active military personnel and civil servants who apply for Chinese identity documents would face the full force of the law, including potentially being stripped of citizenship.
“The MAC has recently convened meetings with relevant agencies and instructed them to promote awareness that active military personnel, civil servants and public-school teachers are prohibited from applying for household registration in China, as well as Chinese ID cards, permanent residence permits or residence permits,” the council said in a statement.
Those breaching the cross-strait act would face the full force of the law, it added.
That includes having their household registration canceled and losing their citizenship, the act stipulates.
It also stipulates that they cannot undergo military service or hold public office.
The Naval Fleet Command in a news release on Monday said that the sailor had informed the navy that his mother had obtained a Chinese ID card for him without his knowledge.
The command said it has assisted Yang in applying to the NIA expressing his intent to retain his Taiwanese nationality.
The command added that the NIA “preliminarily classified” Yang as a special case and said it would “handle subsequent matters per the NIA’s review findings and legal procedures.”
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